By Yuri Woodfall – Western Lead Photojournalist, Sound Check Entertainment
Midway Music Hall – Edmonton, Alberta – October 1, 2026
Twenty-five years can disappear remarkably quickly.
For Default, those years have included a multi-platinum debut album, some of the biggest Canadian rock songs of the early 2000s, a lengthy hiatus and Dallas Smith establishing an entirely separate career as one of Canada’s biggest country artists. But on October 1 at Midway Music Hall in Edmonton, it was time to turn the clock back to where it all began.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of their debut album, The Fallout, Default returned to Edmonton for a night that was unapologetically nostalgic without ever feeling stuck in the past.
And they brought one hell of an opening act with them.
Wide Mouth Mason sets the bar high
Wide Mouth Mason were incredible.
The Canadian rock veterans wasted little time establishing the tone for the night, opening with “Smile” before moving into “Why” and “This Mourning.” It quickly became apparent that this wasn’t going to feel like a typical opening set.
Instead, Wide Mouth Mason essentially played hit after hit.
“Companion (Lay Me Down)” was an early highlight before “You Pushed Me” and “Bodies in Motion” kept the set moving. There wasn’t much downtime, and there didn’t need to be. The strength of the band’s catalogue and the performance itself did all the talking.
“The Game” continued the run before “Midnight Rain,” which included a snippet of The Tragically Hip’s “Ahead by a Century,” adding another distinctly Canadian moment to a night already celebrating an important era of Canadian rock.
Closing with “My Old Self,” Wide Mouth Mason delivered the kind of opening performance that could have easily stood on its own.
They weren’t simply there to warm up the room for Default. They were fantastic, and by the time their set ended, the bar for the rest of the evening had been set remarkably high.
Twenty-five years of The Fallout
When Default took the stage, the attention shifted to the album at the centre of the entire tour.
Smith acknowledged the milestone himself during the night, telling the Edmonton crowd that it had been 25 years since Default released their debut album and admitting that he couldn’t believe how quickly the time had flown.
Looking around Midway at an audience still singing these songs back to him a quarter-century later, it would have been difficult not to appreciate just how much had happened since The Fallout arrived in 2001.
Default came out swinging with “Sick & Tired,” immediately putting the anniversary album front and centre before moving into “Slow Me Down.” From there, “Count on Me” shifted the set into One Thing Remains, showing that while The Fallout was the reason for the celebration, the night wasn’t going to ignore the rest of Default’s catalogue.
“All Is Forgiven” followed before “Hiding From the Sun” continued the trip through the band’s later material.
Then came “(Taking My) Life Away,” bringing the crowd into Elocation territory, followed by “All She Wrote.”
It was a set built around more than simply waiting for the biggest singles. Default were digging through their catalogue and giving longtime fans songs from across their career while continually circling back to the album that started everything.
“Seize the Day” and “Somewhere” brought The Fallout firmly back into focus, followed by “Live a Lie.”
Three songs from the debut in succession made the anniversary celebration impossible to miss.
Dallas Smith still knows how to command a rock stage
The songs were only part of what made Default’s performance work.
Dallas Smith had a killer stage presence throughout the night.
Rather than standing behind the microphone and allowing nostalgia to do the heavy lifting, Smith continually worked the stage and played directly to the crowd on multiple occasions. There was a genuine connection between him and the Edmonton audience, and he seemed completely comfortable feeding off the energy coming back at him.
Considering how much of Smith’s career since Default’s original run has been associated with country music, seeing him step back into the role of a rock frontman felt remarkably natural.
There was no sense of someone dusting off an old job.
Dallas Smith was a rock frontman again – and a damn good one.
Default then dipped outside their own catalogue for Stone Temple Pilots’ “Plush,” a cover that felt perfectly at home in the set. Default came out of the same post-grunge era, and the song fit naturally alongside the band’s own material.
“Let You Down” followed, adding another Fallout track to an already album-heavy night, before “Without You” returned to Elocation.
And then came the song everyone knew was coming.
“Wasting My Time”
Some songs become inseparable from the era in which they were released.
“Wasting My Time” is one of them.
More than two decades after it became Default’s breakthrough hit, those opening notes still carry an immediate familiarity. At Midway, it became one of those moments where the nostalgia behind the entire 25th-anniversary celebration suddenly made perfect sense.
This wasn’t simply about remembering something that happened in 2001.
The crowd was still singing it.
Default was still playing it.
And it still worked.
After spending the night revisiting The Fallout and the band’s wider catalogue, “Wasting My Time” provided the obvious emotional high point of the main set.
But Default still had two songs left.
The band returned for an encore with Injected’s “Bullet,” another song that fit naturally alongside the early-2000s rock sound celebrated throughout the evening.
Then there was really only one appropriate way to end the night.
“Deny.”
One of the defining tracks from The Fallout brought the celebration full circle, giving Edmonton one final blast from the album that started Default’s career 25 years ago.
A mix worthy of the performances
Both performances were helped tremendously by an excellent mix throughout the night.
The sound at Midway was very well done. Vocals remained clear and present without burying the guitars, while the bass and drums retained the punch and weight a rock show like this needs.
Nothing felt unnecessarily muddy or overpowering.
It was simply a great mix that allowed both bands to sound the way they should, and when you’ve got two guitar-driven Canadian rock bands pulling from catalogues like these, that’s exactly what you want.
Twenty-five years later
Anniversary tours can sometimes survive entirely on nostalgia.
This one didn’t need to.
Wide Mouth Mason delivered an incredible opening performance packed with recognizable songs and proved to be a perfect choice to share the bill, while Default showed that the music of The Fallout can still carry a room 25 years after its release.
More importantly, Default looked like they were enjoying playing it.
Smith’s comment about not believing how quickly those 25 years had passed ended up capturing the night remarkably well. For many of the people inside Midway, these were songs connected to another point in their lives too.
But for a couple of hours, none of those 25 years really mattered.
Dallas Smith was commanding a rock stage again. Default were ripping through the songs that put them on the map. An Edmonton crowd was singing them straight back.
And 25 years later, The Fallout sounded very much alive.
